the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground
“he posed her against a background of rolling hills”
the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem
“the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident”
extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured
“they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals”
a person's social heritage: previous experience or training
“he is a lawyer with a sports background”
relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation
“when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background”